In this section I will
highlight the design
details of this Art Car's composition.
"The
road" is what Scatha is all about. In terms of the Art Car the
driver's side is stylized from Hwy 154 going over the San Marcos pass
towards Santa Barbara at sunset. The Passenger's side is inspired by
Willow Springs International Raceway, the foremost race track during
Scatha's development. In the front the two roads merge through the
brake ducts. In the rear they merge behind the license plate. The road
has some metallic paint mixed with the regular acrylic for extra
luminescence.
As
the white clouds and black night sky form a basic yin/yang it was
necessary to have some elements form the "dots". On the hood I used the
BMW M logo, custom Imola Red engine cover and oil filler cap. On the
roof I used a top-down view of a helmet, above the driver's position.
The helmet's ring is the original carbon fiber of the roof and the
center of the helmet is the moon in the night sky.
Other
hood details include abstractions of the six S54 throttle bodies and
the ASA supercharger from ESS's CFR500 kit.
The
hood's clouds overlap the front bumper cover, and change from solid to
triagular style in the process. Of other significance on the nose of
the car are the BMW Roundel rimmed by original BMW factory Titanium
Silver paint, and the grills that I painted in acrylic to mimic
Titanium Silver and dark gray metallic plastic.
The
clouds on start on the passenger side as early morning, moisture laden
cumulus. Then it transitions across to the hood changing to altostratus
and finally cirrus. Toward the front of the car, on the track side, the
white of the clouds becomes a reference to a "body in white" factory
race car chassis.
The
BMW M stripes and colored to the M badge, not the colors used most
often in motorsport on race cars. They start at the Hofmeister Kink ,
overlapping each other to set up for the long run to the front of the
car, accenting the body lines and also acting as a soft break between
the desert dawn and midday sky of the hood.
The
two "suns" are a primary component to the composition. On both sides
they are the origin of all color, and source of light for shadows. On
the driver's side I painted the modified side marker. On the passenger
side I painted a custom made engine bay exhaust vent. Both have light
rays projecting from them, accenting the diagonal character line of the
Z4.
There
are several important details on the passenger, or "track", side. First
is the Budweiser Balcony accompanying turns 3 through 7 of Willow
Springs International Raceway. Streets of Willow is also represented in
the distance. The "sponsor stickers" represent companies the were
significant in Scatha's developement. The number 400 is Scatha's North
American prouction number. The 400 and "sponsors" are done in a dark
metallic bronze to contrast with the cooler gray tone of the road,
which has silver metallic in it.
There
are three significant transitions on this Art Car. First is the
transition from the early morning dawn light to evening light through
the clouds across the decklid. There is also the transition in the left
rear quarter that moves from late afternoon light through twilight and
untimately to a night ski on the roof. Similarly the bright sunset
clouds on the left front fender transition to darker tones across the
nose of the car.
The
rear is composed of two different sections. The decklid, which is split
in two, blue and white. This is a loose homage to the Cobra Daytona
Coupe, which I believe is a spiritual precursor to the Z4 M Coupe. In
this case the blue is Interlagos Blue, the color of the first
production BMW Z4 M Coupe to be officially shown to the public. The
white, with the 400 number, is a reference again to a "body in white".
This balances with the front of the car on the "track" side.I painted
the trunk's M badge on the blue section in its stock location. The
bumper is a transition from the Willow Springs mountains to a view of the Cold Spring Canyon Arch Bridge on 154.
The
driver's side, or "street" side, is visually dominated by a blazing
sunset. Also of note are the lights on the radio towers on Broadcast
Peak overlooking San Marcos pass, as well as the lights of the city of
Santa Barbara as they turn on before dark.
I
tried to preserve and highlight the lines of the Z4 M Coupe as much as
possible within this composition. In some cases this meant following a
body line, in other cases it meant straddling it. And sometimes I would
repeat multiple curves' termination points so that they were tangental
to a significant body line. Below are examples of these choices.
Sheen
has played an important role in my more recent paintings, and while not
as significant in this composition there are some areas to note. The
front splitter, rear view mirrors and the lowest portion of the rear
bumper are all flat coated after being painted black. This was to
accentuate the gloss and depth of the paint on the car's body. I also
mixed in some pearlescent powder into the gloss of the ocean beyond
Santa Barbara, so that it will twinkle faintly as the viewer moves
around the car.
There
are other elements to the composition worth mentioning, lest
they
escape notice. The night sky around the moon has constellations in it.
The primary emphasis is on Orion, but the other stars are accurate
according to Google Sky. You may notice in this picture of the sky, and
the picture of the nose below, that there is much more color difference
in these dark areas than shows up in the other photos. This is because
of the light metering limitations of a camera, as opposed to the human
eye. This is one reason I suggest you see Scatha in person (follow
myartcar on Twitter for showing updates). The factory tow hooks are in
place, front and rear. The covers are painted as well, but I leave them
off for track use. Lastly, my signature, which is in the lower right of
the painting.
